25th March 2016

Listening to Young People

25th September 2012 ... Charlotte

Today I along with two other representatives from YoungMinds visited the local child and adolescent inpatient unit to run a workshop with the young people. It was the second of these workshops that we have run in the unit. The aims of the sessions are to:

Raise awareness of YoungMinds and the VIK project

Provide recovery inspiration/ hope for CAMHS inpatients

Decrease feelings of isolation prompted by being an inpatient

Empower individuals to make positive changes in their lives

Provide a distraction in the inpatient day

Increase inpatient participation schemes

Link with outpatient participation work

We split into small groups and had discussions around some predetermined questions relating to young people's mental health. What struck me yet again was how passionately young people felt about mental health education in schools. In many schools PHSE covers STI's and pregnancy however little or nothing is generally said about mental health, which is shocking as one in ten young people will suffer with a mental illness. Schools have a responsibility to consider the emotional health of their students as well as striving for academic achievement. In my local area it seems that the community is finally starting to recognise that some schools do a lot more to support their students than others and this is where the role of AcSEED is so important.